First time author Richard Newsome, winner of the 2008 Text Prize for Young Adult and Children's Writing for his book The Billionaire's Curse, is interviewed by Fiona Purdon for "The Courier-Mail".
The Billionaire's Curse started more than a decade ago as a bedtime story Newsome developed for [his children] Sam and Ruby. To help him remember the ever-expanding plot Newsome started writing down the events and the book slowly evolved.
For eight years the author "fluffed around" writing "bits and pieces" and then three years ago the family, who had been living in Sydney, moved to Brisbane and Newsome quit his high-flying career in the media to write full time.
His wife Kath worked in public relations full-time and Newsome gave himself two years to write and polish the manuscript. In between school pick-ups and drop-offs and household chores Newsome would churn out about 1500 words a day.
Once he finished the manuscript he gave himself a year to get it published. He sent it to about 15 British agents and was rejected by all of them.
"The rejections all came back at the same time, every day I would go to the post box at the same time and see a rejection slip, it was very depressing," he says.
